


A Sickeningly Sour Note

by JellyfishPublishing



Category: Classicaloid (Anime)
Genre: Also some Mozart angst cause it's my favorite thing, Being sick with Fatigue is a big deal, Gen, despite what Manga seems to think, mostly I love Kanae and I want everyone to take care of her
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-05
Updated: 2018-01-05
Packaged: 2019-02-28 15:54:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,020
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13274829
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JellyfishPublishing/pseuds/JellyfishPublishing
Summary: Kanae's not feeling well and everyone around her shows her how much they're willing to care for her. Some of it is just not helping her feel better, however.





	A Sickeningly Sour Note

**Author's Note:**

> [A.N] Another old fic, they just keep on coming. This one was right after episode 12, so if some things don't quite match up with the rest of season 1, that's my only excuse I can give. I do hope you enjoy!

As with most things in her life recently, Kanae was just going about her business normally, feeling quite fine, until it hits her all at once.

 

The teacher’s voice sounds muffled and she looks up to figure out why when the motion causes a dizzying spectacle swimming across her eyes. She sets her pencil down and brings a hand to her temple, trying to steady her bobbing head as the letters on the whiteboard start chasing each other around and around. She gives a shaky breath and tries to look down at her notes, watching her vision blur kanji into smudged, black lines.

_‘No, wait, that can’t be kanji,’_ She thinks, trying to blink the blurred spots back into something legible, _‘this—this is English class.’_

 

Her head sways from side to side a bit and she lowers it, fingers threading through her hair as she wills it to stop. It feels like her whole body is swaying, the sensation of spinning around and around hits her stomach the hardest and she feels it flip, her body hunching forward in response.

_‘Oh god, I’m gonna throw up-’_

 

“Otowa?”

 

Kanae raises her head slowly, squinting, and sees Mr. Satoru looking at her, his kindly face pinched into something more akin to parental worry. She would flush at this, if she wasn’t sure her cheeks were as pale as the whiteboard behind him, and just looks at him helplessly; noting that though her vision seems to focus on him, the edges of him blurrier seem blurry. She can make out the frown, though, and just closes her eyes as she hears him call out to the girl in the seat next to him.

 

“Sakai, can you take Otowa to the nurse?”

 

\---------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Kanae’s not sure how long she’s been in there until the nurse walks over to open the door and there’s Sousuke peering in, his face colored with all the curiosity of the next piece of high school gossip sitting on his tongue. Not that she will be much gossip—well, any more than she already is with all of _her tenant’s idiotic stunts_ —-but because, really, she just has a little fatigue.

 

“Fatigue?” Sousuke asks, looking to the nurse and then back at Kanae, his head tilting in confusion, “Awwww, but Sakai-san said it was really serious.”

 

Kanae resists the urge to punch him in front of the nurse.

 

“Fatigue is actually quite serious,” says the Nurse, the corner of her mouth turning down just slightly. She sighs at Sousuke’s blank expression and right before Sousuke can say anything, she raises a hand.

 

“Yes, I know, manga seems to make it seem like it’s nothing, but for a body to go into fatigue like this, it means Otowa isn’t sleeping or eating properly, or she’s perhaps working herself much too hard.”

 

Sousuke at least has the decency to look slightly ashamed, head bowed while his shoulders hunch up, as though he’s trying to crawl back into his shell. His eyes look up at her through his eyelashes, shrugging slightly, and she’d almost give him a pointed look if the nurse wasn’t directing that very same look her way.

 

It’s Kanae’s turn to feel ashamed, her eyes glancing away to the window as she pretends not to notice, biting down on her lip. She feels something small and petulant in her stomp its feet, trying to point out how the _idiots_ she lives with drive her up the wall and how there’s _no one_ to help her with any of the work and _it’s not her fault no one will help her when not even her dad can be bothered_ —

 

She feels a sharp pain, the feeling digging down into her brain like an iron weight as it pushes it further and further down. She clutches at her head and gives a little whimper, her fingers trying to dig into her scalp. She hears the nurse hurrying over her, the sound of her heels much more unbearable than they were a few minutes ago, and gentle, cooled hands coax her fingers away. She looks up at the slightly blurred vision of the nurse, watching it focus back into a crisp, clear image of a worried frown, and bites back another whimper as her head throbs.

 

“Headache?”

 

Kanae makes a small sound in her throat.

 

The nurse’s voice dips into a softer sound, “Can you tell me where?”

 

Kanae takes one of her hands back from the nurse and touches her forehead.

 

The nurse helps her sit up, letting Kanae lean into cold hands and steady arms for just a moment, before leaving her to go get some water by the sink. Sousuke just seems to appear then, Kanae only really seeing him from her peripheral in what seems like an instant. He shifts a bit, moving too much for her until she frowns at him, making him stop and look at her apologetically.

 

The nurse comes over with the water, handing the cup to Sousuke, who looks at her bewildered before turning to Kanae with eyes much too wide. She’s already reaching for it when he swallows thickly, loud enough for her to hear, and starts bringing the cup to her mouth, the lip of the cup knocking into her lower lip in a nervous sort of rhythm from his shaking hand.

 

Normally, she might just take the cup and roll her eyes at him, maybe even tell him how ridiculous he’s being.

 

For now, though, and maybe because of the headache, she takes a nice, cool drink from his offered hand. She takes a long sip, enough to feel it trickle all the way down and enough for her headache to start waning as she pulls back.

 

Sosuke’s hand finally stops trembling and he’s even laid a sweaty, but reassuring hand on her back.

 

 

 

The whole walk home has Sousuke either hovering too close or constantly trying to have her lean on him. She snaps at both actions and is altogether snippier than usual, but she essentially conceded by the halfway point where she has almost walked right into a pole and Sousuke had to save her from knocking nose first into it. She continues swaying on her feet but now it’s the added juggling attempt by Sousuke as he awkwardly tries to both have her lean on him and hold her upright, even as she’s growling about it. He even keeps flinching as though she really will bite him.

 

She finds herself leaning her face into his arm, said arm sort of wrapped around her shoulders in a way that couldn’t have saved her from falling if he tried, as she leans almost all the way into him and he leans back himself to accommodate her shaking knees. He looks like he’s about to fall and Kanae must look like she’s already falling in slow-motion but neither of them miraculously fall at all.

 

They do look like the most embarrassing statues ever to grace town though.

 

But through sheer luck, and very likely actual magic, they finally arrive at the mansion. Sousuke starts hovering again, wanting her to come inside as quickly as they can to get her in there. Kanae, though, is very wary and stands at the gate, gripping it as she tries to keep her building nausea in check.

 

“Come oooooonnnn, Kanae,” he whines, the feeling splitting straight into her brain. She groans and wants to dig her heels in, but she has to concede with him---even though every inch of her wants to just tie herself to the gate. For the first time, Sousuke actually takes some initiative and slowly pries her fingers from it, Kanae whimpering slightly as her pinky is the last to slip away and her body sways back into Sousuke. He splutters a bit but just accepts it, trudging along to the door with her leaning on him.

 

His hands are shaking as they hold on to hers and she really doesn’t know what to make of that.

 

But any thought on examining why, or at the very least a thought on how her house is going to _survive_ with her out of commission, comes to a literal, screeching halt.

 

Kanae winces, Sousuke stopping as they both stare at the door to see Mozart, his jaw dropped and pointing at them accusatorily, still somewhat screeching. Or well, correction. Kanae notes, even as her brain feels like it’s drifting away, that Mozart is frowning and pointing more at Sousuke than her.

 

“You! What are you doing with Kanae?! I’m the only one who gets to do those sorts of things!”

 

Kanae wants to glare at him.

 

Sousuke splutters, letting go of her hands and trying to take a step away from her, “H-h-hey! I’m not-! This isn’t-!”

 

But without support Kanae trips forward, her feet tangling as she tries not to fall. She sways and thinks to raise her arms, but can’t seem to raise them quick enough. She closes her eyes and whimpers, waiting for the ground–

 

She hears twin gasps and feels Sousuke grab her roughly, pulling her back to him. The force of it knocks her into Sousuke, hitting some part of his face, most likely his jaw, and they both give out loud groans of pain. She curls into herself, finally finding the energy to lift her hand as she cradles the side of her head, hissing out as Sousuke lets an arm slip and she finds herself stumble forward again, head lowered low to the ground. She’s fighting to keep upright as nausea rears back up, a burning feeling tickling up the back of her throat, and she’s not really paying attention when big, red shoes come into focus.

 

 

“Kanae?” It’s Mozart’s voice, but it’s a very gentle sound in his usual, obnoxiously loud, cotton candy voice. There’s also a tone to it, curled around it in a very un-Mozart-like way, that she gives a passing thought in trying to figure out, but the dizzy, swimming feeling drowns it once more. She feels more hands this time, warm and surprisingly calloused palms holding her arms. She sways, again, more into Mozart but this time she’s drawn closer into a steady embrace, his arms holding up more of her weight. Her face leans into him; she tries not to smell the lingering smell of vanilla and sugar and she also tries not to find it comforting.

 

She hears Sousuke say something but she can’t really make it out, the words all running together. Her mind is stuck on the way she just wants to go to _bed_ and how sluggish she feels and how the _hell_ is the housework going to get done, she can’t have them do a repeat of _last time_ -

 

“Kanae?”

 

She groans, blinking, and suddenly finds she’s at the door, the inside of her house seeming more like paradise at the moment, and she’s still leaning against Mozart. She’s lifted her head to him, wondering why he’s called her, and that worried expression crumbles. His eyes go wide and his lips part, but it doesn’t look like he’s breathing. He goes pale but his gaze doesn’t focus on her; a painful, tragic sort of horror settles in expression but he also doesn’t seem to register her at all anymore.

 

“Moz-kun?”

 

But he can’t answer before three familiar faces are spotted.

 

“Kitty Cat! Oh and the piece of trash! We were starting to–”  


Kanae slowly cranes her head to the stairs. Liszt, Chopin, and even Beethoven linger on the last step, paused in their shock at the scene. Kanae looks over to Liszt, trying to focus as much as she can only on those orange eyes, and she’s trying to say something—but the groan she gives says it all.

 

There’s silence for one pin-drop moment before it shatters into a sudden and deafening flurry of motion. Feet are stomping over to her, hands are grasping at her—she is pulled from Mozart’s chest into Liszt’s  smothering embrace and then into Beethoven’s grip, only to return to Sousuke’s more twitching, shaking hold— and there’s noises and voices and questions she just can’t really find it in herself to answer.

 

“Kanae! Kanae, oh God!”

 

“Young one! What’s wrong? You look as though you’ve been thrown against Death’s door!”

 

“Hey! Jeeze! Guys calm down! She’s—uh well, I mean it’s not that’s she’s _great_ or anything but–!”

 

“You! What did you do!”

 

“M-me? I didn’t do anything! The nurse said-!”

 

There’s something of a choked sound and Kanae registers that it must be Mozart.

 

“Wolf! What’s wrong with you? Is it that contagious?!”

 

“Oh Kanae! Speak to me! Open your eyes, pretty girl!”

 

“Lis-san, her eyes _are_ open…”

 

Kanae eyes focus on nothing in particular, her friends turning more into blurred blobs of color in her vision. She leans more into Sousuke, if only because she’s so _tired_ and she’s losing her willpower to refrain from being shameless. She feels she’s being jostled a bit more, her feet dragging behind her as she’s brought into the house. There’s another wave of flustered, worried hands, Liszt’s fingers rubbing gentle circles into her cheeks before Beethoven’s larger hands roughly turn her body this way and that way. She hears Sousuke trying to make them stop, his voice reaching higher pitches as she feels his hands try to reach for her but they’re always batted away.

 

Finally, she’s grabbed, gently but firmly, by a pair of hands she can’t recognize.

 

Warm, thick fingers press to her back but when one hand curls around her wrist, it seems barely able to wrap around her slender wrist. She is led to the couch, the figure flinching every time her body leans into the person, but they are still careful with her as she lies down. Her head lolls to the side and her eyes finally focus when she feels those fingers move her face left to right slowly. She blinks and recognizes those gold eyes, especially as he tries to part his hair a bit to see her better.

 

“Chopin…san?”

 

He pauses but nods, his lips twitching a bit before he gives up trying to smile, and just nods again. He continues turning her face this way and that way, frowning a bit as he squints. She hears something and looks up and beyond him, seeing the rest of them crowding around, staring at the two of them with very vulnerable expressions. Liszt’s eyes flit between the two of them but Beethoven’s stares right at her, his eyes bone-cuttingly sharp on her face. Sousuke’s eyes can’t seem to focus on one thing before they’ve flitted to the next thing, and then the next, his whole body twitching and moving. His hands rub at each other and then rub on his jeans, probably clammy with sweat, and he just can’t even stop his feet from moving. Mozart walks in quietly, his face somber, and he looks like he did when they thought his baby dear had died.

 

“Cho-chan? Is she going to be okay?”

 

“Why would Cho-san know what’s wrong with her?” Sousuke asks, looking over at the two of them for a moment, “And I already told you it’s fatigue.”

 

“That looks more serious than just being tired,” Beethoven says, his eyes narrowing and his frown growing more troubled.

 

“No—well yeah but–”

 

There’s a click and the door squeaking open, a voice ringing out “Hello? I’ve come back from employment! Beethoven-senpai? Esteemed Landlady?…..The rest?”

 

Liszt gives a sort of scoff at that but Beethoven is already moving, rushing to the door. Kanae thinks to maybe see what the fuss is, but Chopin’s moving her head again, having her look at him before his hand lifts to her head. His fingers curl, flinching when they move closer, but with a determined look on his face, he lays the back of his fingers to her forehead. His fingers are a little cooler than the rest of his hand so she closes her eyes and leans into it. She hears him squeak and she wonders if he’ll pull away like he does with any kind of human contact, but aside from his hands shaking, his fingers continue pressing gently at her forehead.

 

She hears noise again, the voice from before now stuttering, mostly filled with a distinct sort of pleasure.

 

“S-s-senpai! What is going on? W-w-where are we going? Are we–” there is a choked off giggle of a sound before a harsh clearing of a throat, “I-I-I mean, Beethoven-senpai–”

 

The voice stops and Kanae tries to force her eyes open, finding the action more difficult than ever before, until finally pushing through. She can’t quite see his expression but judging from what she can make of the orange blob, she knows it’s Schubert.

 

“….oh dear…”

 

The blob that is Schubert becomes more defined the longer she stares at him and when he finally makes his way to her in long, quick strides, she can see his usual serious face is laced with concern that is uncharacteristically focused on something other than Beethoven. He kneels down, and it’s at this point she’s realized that even Chopin has kneeled down, and takes turns with Chopin to look at her too.

 

He turns his head to Chopin, “is it a fever?”

 

Chopin shakes his head, “….no.”

 

“A cold in the head?”

 

“It’s Fatigue,” Sousuke says, probably in his mind helpfully, but to Kanae sounds a bit like bragging.

 

The other two must think so because they ignore him completely.

 

“She hasn’t…..coughed. But….perhaps. I remember being like this….once.” Chopin says, pursing his lips and looking at her.

 

Schubert nods and starts to stand up, pointing to Sousuke with one swift flick of his arm.

 

“You! Errand boy!–”

 

“I am _not_!”

 

“–We need oranges! I believe we have some from Senpai’s last masterpiece!”

 

Kanae wouldn’t exactly call that orange meringue monstrosity a “masterpiece”. Especially when Mozart began eating the majority of the failed attempts and used the sugar high for the worst musik catastrophe she’s ever had to deal with.

 

Sousuke seems to sigh, a relieved sort of sound that Kanae would mirror if she could, “At least it’s normal.”

 

Schubert humps happily, “Indeed! A rind in both nostrils and she’ll be healthier than a horse!”

 

Kanae groans and Sousuke splutters.

 

“Whaaaaat!? Orange rind?!?! Up her _nose_?!!?”

 

“Naturally! It helps for a cold in the head most excellently!”

 

“I told you it’s fatigue!”

 

“Well then how about some lemon juice and manna?”

 

“What’s manna?”

 

“Sap,” Chopin says, turning to Sousuke.

 

His face goes green, “Like _tree_ sap?! You’re gonna feed Kanae _tree_ sap?!”

 

“We have lemon juice in the fridge!” Beethoven offers.  


Kanae groans again.

 

“Oh Poor Kitten!” Liszt exclaims, walking over and takes one of Kanae’s hands, the movement of it near boneless, into her own soft hands, “Don’t you worry! Big Sister Liszt is here to make you better!”

 

“How can _you_ make her better?!”

 

“ _At least I know how!”_

 

Kanae groans again and closes her eyes, willing herself to conk out.

 

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Kanae’s first thought as she finds herself waking, her face feeling stiff for a minute, is that she must have actually gone to sleep after all.

 

Her next thought is wondering why Sousuke seems to be waking her up from it.

 

She feels a moment of panic, thoughts whirling with images of the Classicaloids destroying her house, a chaotic mess left in their wake all over her mansion and can already see the workers coming back, drag her out, telling her she’s not fit to take care of this house—

 

When she sees him smiling, saying something cheerfully to someone on the phone, before he brings it to her ear.

 

“They’ve been worried about you,” he says, as though that answers everything.  


Kanae opens her mouth, clearing her throat a bit, and winces at her raspy, sleeping voice.

 

“Hello?”

 

“Kanae!”

 

Her eyes widen and she leans her ear closer, her face full of wonder.

 

“Tchiako-san?”

 

“Yes of course it’s me! We heard you were sick, kay? We wanted to know you were alright! Liszt said you fainted!”

 

“I didn’t faint,” she says, unable to bite back a sigh.

 

“It’s alright if you are, kay? Bara is bad with blood and she swoons herself.”

 

She hears loud protests from somewhere in the background and Kanae finds herself giggling at that.

 

“Is Bara there too?”

 

“Oh yeah, she is. Here you go, kay.”

 

There’s some shuffling, a loud beep in her ear that has her wincing, imagining that someone accidentally pressed a button, when another familiar voice is in her ear.

 

“Kanae!”

 

“Bara-san, hello!”

 

Sousuke’s eyes light up before he bites his lip. His eyes shift to the phone and then back to her, looking conflicted. She narrows her eyes at him before he slumps, pouting as Bara keeps talking.

 

“—And that’s why we had to call Sousuke! We were so worried about you!”

 

“Thank you, guys. I feel a little better after sleeping. I should be fine.”

 

There’s a soft sigh but then a small gasp, “Oh? Yes? No, we’re just talking to–”

 

There’s more shuffling and Kanae isn’t sure why Tchaiko wanted the phone until a voice that couldn’t be Tchiako at all answers the phone.

 

“Are you feeling alright?”

 

Kanae recognizes the voice but she can’t believe who it is.

 

“Oh…! You’re the-! The man who came to look at the house!” She exclaims, shocked by what he could _possibly_ be doing with the idols. He had said he worked in music; maybe he was working with the company?

 

“I have heard from Tchaikovsky and Baranowska that you seemed to have fallen deeply ill. Please, tell me if you need to go to the hospital. I can arrange for something.”

 

“Oh nononono!” Kanae says, gasping and lifting herself from the bed in her excitement. She exhales in a rush, the world rushing up to meet her before swaying for a moment. Sousuke makes a distressed squeak and steadies her with his hands, not shaking as much as before. When the world settles, she grips the phone in both hands and takes a deep breath.

 

“I’m fine,” she tells him, trying to sound as reassuring as she can, “please, don’t go to any trouble like that. The nurse at my school said it was most likely fatigue, I’ll just rest and be fine, probably by tomorrow.”

 

Sousuke makes a disagreeable noise but she shushes him with a look. She can’t afford to be out of commission for that long. Who knows what’ll happen to the house?

 

“….Have the tenants at your house worked you that hard?”

 

Kanae doesn’t really know how to answer that. If she had been in better health and it have been a normal day, she might have said “oh you don’t know the _half_ of it!” Yet there’s something to the tone of his voice, that makes her feel like if she said something like that so flippantly, she could kiss all of them goodbye. But what takes her breath away is how much she is _vehemently_ against that, how she feels a thousand times worse than she did this morning just _thinking_ of them leaving. She sees the mansion empty, haunted by memories of her Grandmother, by the silence. She doesn’t want to go through that again.

 

“No. No they’re not really….I mean, they don’t make it _easier_ always but…”

 

She thinks of the way they were all fretting this afternoon, thinks of the feeling of their hands on her, trying to hold on to her before she slipped away.

 

“I just need to not work myself so hard always.”

 

There’s a chuckle in her ear, warm and oddly fond, “I would recommend that for you. Truly though, call if you need some help in any case.”

 

She thanks him and he gives the phone back to the idols, who ask her a million and one questions about her health and tell her twice as many things about cures to get better. She answers all of the questions and listens to none of the cures, promising anyway to try and get better. It’s a long time before she’s finally saying goodbye and when she finally hands it back to Sousuke he’s looking at her with a smile.

 

“What?” she asks, raising an eyebrow.

 

“You liiiiiiike us~!” he says in a sing-song voice.  


She narrows her eyes, “I like _paying tenants_ and I _tolerate_ freeloaders.”

 

“You liiiiiike us~! You’ve _always_ been like that! You pretend you hate something when really you–”

 

She finds just enough strength in her to grab a pillow next to her and smack Sousuke with it.

 

Besides an “oof!” and a few feather’s flying, the only reaction Sousuke gives to it is laughter.

 

She frowns at him before plopping down on the bed, bringing the covers up around her head.

 

“I need to sleep!”

 

She hears him chuckle and mutter under his breath “what a tsundere” before she hears his footsteps, the jingling of her doorknob turning filters through her blanket.

 

“Wait!”

 

She lifts a small corner of the blanket and looks at him, half of it covering her mouth. She sees him turn around, blinking big blue eyes at her as he tilts his head.

 

“yeah?”

 

“…….thanks……for today.”

 

He blinks again and, one heartbeat later, he’s beaming at her. Grinning from ear to ear, his cheeks grow rosy, and even his nostrils flare open in that way they’ve done ever since he was a little boy. He chuckles happily and nods, turning around to walk forward—

 

Only to walk right into the door.

 

\---------------------------------------------------

He jumps back, turning back to her to smile dopily, and opens the door quickly to slip through it just as quick. The door closes creakingly behind him.  


Kanae can’t help but giggle.

 

 

 

Kanae isn’t really sleeping by the time she hears her bedroom door open and she doesn’t even pretend to.

 

Mozart slips in, tall and for once not so flamboyant and assured in his steps. He closes the door and walks to her bed carefully, his eyes not on her but the floor. Kanae forgets sometimes, that Mozart is so tall, that he is so much larger in everything that he is, so it seems all the more strange to see him looking so small.

 

When his eyes lift up they meet hers, surprise filling up baby blues as he freezes in place.

 

“Oh….Kanae….you’re….you’re up.”

 

Even his voice is small. More whisper than anything, despondent and lost and nothing like Mozart, nothing like Mozart at _all_.

 

“Motz?” she asks, noting the way he seems to flinch at that name, “are you alright?”

 

He seems to chuckle at that; the irony is not lost on her either. He nods once before looking to the bed and then back to her. She makes a big show of sighing before she scoots over, giving him a space. He takes it, sitting down gently next to her legs, and clasps his hands in his lap.

Kanae waits. Kanae waits and waits for a long time for Mozart to speak. He seems to muddling through something, his head tilting this way and that way just slightly, like he’s letting it slosh around in his head a bit before he finally opens his mouth.

 

“My mother…..got really sick one day.”

 

Kanae doesn’t feel like she’s breathing.

 

“She had always been sickly….I remember that, at least. I remember….having fun and telling her jokes when she would lie in bed, trying to get better.”

 

He shifts a bit and he lowers his face a bit. She can’t see his eyes but she can bet what expression they must be making.

 

“She was always sickly but…..she was my mother. I didn’t think….I never _thought_ that _she_ would _die_ like that.”

 

Kanae thinks of her Grandmother, who would chase her around and pick her up and teach her to dance all around that ballroom. She remembers her Grandmother who would bemoan the state of her wrinkles, more for Kanae’s amusement than actual vanity, but who could still tickle her granddaughter into a giggling stupor. She remembers hearing her Grandmother cough and never expecting what it would mean in the long run.

 

She also remembers thinking that her Grandmother would never leave her life so quickly.

 

Kanae watches his hands tighten around each other, shaking slightly, and sees the rise and fall of his chest speed up.  


“I remember—”

 

Kanae is unsure of soft touches, of hands reaching out to cover someone else’s, softly like the touch of a butterfly’s wing, in a show of compassion. Only her Grandmother had touched her so sweetly, but before she had rarely even been _hugged_ and now she still doesn’t know of such touches since those weirdoes came knocking at her door. She knows only of big and bold displays of affection, of hands holding on tightly and hugs that are damn near suffocating, but she’s never had the nerve to do it.

 

So she steels herself, trying to conjure up the courage as she thinks about the roses he gave her on her birthday, and throws her arms around him.

 

Mozart gasps and she tries not to blush, fights it and fights it and _fights it_ as she buries her face in her shoulder. He sits there, still as a statue, and she squeezes him, trying to make him understand.

 

“….Kanae?”

 

She shakes her head and fists his shirt tightly. There’s a long moment where they don’t say anything, where hugging Mozart is full of sharp angles and not a soft spot on him, when she hears something.

 

Mozart chuckling, low and warm.

 

She feels arms encircling her, drawing her in, and she relaxes into it as he nuzzles his cheek to the side of her head.

 

“Heehee! Does this mean you’re admitting you’re feelings for me~?”

 

“…..don’t ruin the moment.”

 

He chuckles again, happier than before, and gives her a tight squeeze.  


She leans into it, closing her eyes, and feels herself drifting to sleep once more.      

 


End file.
